Woman Faints During Obama Speech

President reaches back to steady her

(Newser)
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President Obama took a break in the middle of his speech on ObamaCare's less-than-sterling web debut to steady a woman who appeared to be fainting directly behind him. The moment, captured by Mediaite, is a brief one; the woman stumbles only a bit before being steadied by both the president and the people around her, then is led gently away. "I got you. You're OK," Obama told the woman, before turning to the crowd and quipping, "This happens when I talk too long."

The speech itself was as much a defense of the health care law as it was a mea culpa for its debut. "There's no sugarcoating it. The website has been too slow," Obama said of the latter. But he said his team was working to fix it, and that "unlike the day-after-Thanksgiving sales ... the insurance plans don't run out," he said. (You can read more from the AP, or see the full transcript here.) But the speech shined a light on yet another implementation snafu: Obama touted a phone number users could use instead of the website, promising that it had a wait time of "under a minute." But Twitter was soon abuzz with reports to the contrary, the Atlantic Wire observes; one journalist said she got a busy signal, while another got an automatic message saying that due to high call volume she should try back later.

President Barack Obama reaches back for a woman who began to lose her balance during an event in the Rose Garden, Oct. 21, 2013, on the initial rollout of the health care overhaul.
(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

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